8.25.2013

tot school - the letter l - 25 months

So, I'm not really sure what went on during L week. My husband had off from work. I initially thought that Ethan would love having daddy around for our tot school time but, in actuality, he seemed to really hate to share the time with the both of us. It had to be one or the other doing tot school with Ethan and, since he's never home and this one week was his opportunity, my husband won. Ethan all but kicked me out of tot school whenever I dared enter the room. The trays weren't really utilized in the ways I'd intended, but Ethan really enjoyed himself over the last two weeks. He and his daddy had a blast doing tot school together and, really, that's what counts.

THE LLAMA LLAMA FELT BOARD

Ethan never likes the felt board so I was hoping the Llama Llama characters would help. I printed out the photos on regular paper and glued them to some felt. I went overboard on the glue and it made them a little heavy, so Ethan kept going nuts when the "llamas fall down on floor!" But he did get a kick out of the llamas.

COUNTING LIMA BEANS

I'm fairly certain this tray didn't even get used, though I did spend a great deal of time sweeping up the lima beans that wound up on the floor.

L BIN

I put together a discovery bin with various L items. Ethan really, really enjoyed this bin. Once daddy went back to work, he asked to spend every moment in tot school playing with this -- especially the locks.

L WEEK MAGNET BOARD

The L week magnet board was a big hit, too, as the magnet board usually is. This was probably the last activity for Ethan to get tired of. He would refer to the lamp as a light and get a little mixed up with the light bulb, but he had a lot of fun practicing all these great "L week" vocabulary words!

LUNCH TRAY

I thought this activity would be a fun way for Ethan to use his creativity and also get some practice with practicality by learning to make his lunch. He loved this tray! To make it, I printed out some photos of some lunchtime favorites (bread, cheese, lettuce and tomato slices plus a plum, some Organicasaurus dinosaur snacks, carrots and hummus. I attached these to some foam board and then cut them out. I added little velcro attachments to the backs of the sandwich items so he could put his sandwich together as he pleased. I also included a couple of sandwich bags and a lunchbox for him to create his lunch. He loved to do this tray, especially build his sandwich!

LENTILS AND LIMA BEANS

I had some extra lentils and lima beans leftover, so I just put them into a bin with some cups and scoops and let Ethan go nuts. He loved using his imagination to play with this bin, especially scooping and honing his pouring skills!

LIZARDS

Oh, the lizards. Lizards, lizards, lizards. I thought Ethan would love this tray, and he did. Sort of. I found these bags of sticky lizards two for $1 in the Target party favor aisle and knew they would be great. What I wasn't counting on was for our beloved tongs to break (why did I only buy one set? Kicking myself now!) and be completely unable to find a replacement. I may have shed actual tears over this, I'm just saying. As a last ditch effort, I picked up a small pair of tweezers to introduce Ethan to in lieu of the tongs. He wasn't happy. He wanted tongs. He knew we were practicing with tongs. In the end, he simply became obsessed with playing with the lizards. He and his daddy spent the entire week just playing with these lizards. I'm still finding them in bizarre places throughout the house, like in the refrigerator. So, technically, this tray was still a huge hit.

GROWING LIMA BEANS

We wet some cottonballs and "planted" some Lima beans in jars on our window sill. They're still...deciding if they want to sprout. One seems like it's going to sprout up any day now but the others don't seem so promising. I will continue to post updates of their growth. My husband says they're not getting enough sunlight on the side of our house, but I'm convinced I'm just this bad at growing things. To be continued!

LAVA LAMPS

This activity was a huge hit! We spent a solid hour repeatedly setting our little lava lamp off. To make this, take some clear container. We used an empty Parmesan cheese container. We filled it 3/4 of the way with vegetable oil and the remaining 1/4 with water. We added ten drops of food coloring -- Ethan chose green -- and then dropped in pieces (one half at a time) of Wal-Mart brand Alka Seltzer tablets. Ethan was absolutely mesmerized with this activity!

L WEEK ART

As usual, L week was packed with art. Ethan has really been into markers lately, especially. His favorite art activities we did this week was our paper plate lion. He loved gluing on the strips of paper to make the mane and, of course, putting on the eyes. The lemon and lime we used in our sensory bin were going bad, so Ethan did some stamping with them. He also loved painting the lemon and lime themselves, too.

This is the first Tot School post I ever wrote:http://www.youaretheroots.com/2012/10/welcome-to-tot-school.html

And I do have a Tot School tab on the right that takes you through all of our activities. I don't think I've actually ever written one on how I got started or the basics of our classroom set up (which has changed so much as Ethan ages!) -- but, you know, I probably should. Consider that on my to-do list in the upcoming days. I relied on a lot of advice and help from other awesome tot school moms like Nicole at The Kavanaugh Report blog who was invaluable as I started up (and to this day!).

Aww, thank you! I can definitely promise you I don't put it all together gracefully and am oftentimes found whining, frustrated and crying that nothing is coming together like I planned -- hahaha. In the end, somehow, it all works out! <3

This is just fabulous. Each and every activity made me think, "oh, we need to do this!" Thanks so much for sharing :) Just love your blog and feel lucky my little guy is only a few months younger so I can find some ideas for our upcoming lessons :) Thanks!!!

Hi Lindsay! Looks like a lot of fun activities!I found your blog from the Bloggers Coast 2 Coast.I'm hosting a small garden workshop and inviting several bloggers to participate.You can find more info on my blog Back to the Basics:http://back2basichealth.blogspot.com/2013/08/seed-starting-made-simple-workshop-in.html

Quester is a Pakistan-based questioning answering website where people can ask questions and we try our best to provide them with the best answers. Anyone can ask any legit question in English or Roman Urdu and we provide answers in the same language format. www.quester.pk

Quester is a Pakistan-based questioning answering website where people can ask questions and we try our best to provide them with the best answers. Anyone can ask any legit question in English or Roman Urdu and we provide answers in the same language format. www.quester.pk